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Lesson 4

Probation for Restoration

Daniel 9:24

Introduction

“Seventy weeks are determined upon thy people and upon thy holy city,” Daniel 9:24a.

This begins the most important prophecy in Daniel. God longs to see His people holy – just like He is holy. The little horn of the previous chapter is trying to prevent that from happening (8:24).

• We were promised that God will have a holy victorious people (8:14).

• Satan and his little horn representatives will be broken – defeated (8:25) – supernaturally “without a hand.”

• BUT...

Who will comprise that final promised holy group? Those who will be His heirs. Daniel had prayed that his people would be restored to that covenant relationship. Gabriel said he came to show Daniel what must be done to be among that group. He began: “Consider the vision (mareh)” (9:23).

• This continues what was left off of Daniel 8:14 and 26.

• Every time God explains again the atonement, Jubilee or the covenant, He adds new and beautiful details.

Restoration Prophecy is Based on Time (important concept)

“Seventy weeks” are Given

Seventy (shibiym) represents simply a cardinal number. The word for weeks is shabuwa. Seventy weeks of probation are given to “thy people” and the holy city.

• In Deuteronomy 16:9-10, 16 shabuwa (sabuim) represents a period of seven literal days. Elsewhere it represents “units of seven.”

• Many expositors claim that the prophecy in Daniel 9 is also 490 literal days.

• There are four reasons to see this differently:

1. Daniel and his people are just finishing their captivity because of 70 sabbatical years owed to God (Daniel 9:2, Jeremiah 25:12, II Chronicles 36:21). That would cover 490 years of rebellion. Seventy “seven years” would be 490 years, which would include another 70 sabbatical years to prove themselves – a second chance. The imagery reveals that God in His covenant mercy (9:18) is giving Israel another chance to honor that sacred rest once again. That is based on “weeks-of-years” (Leviticus 25:8).

2. Seventy “weeks-of-years” represent 10 Jubilees or restoration cycles. “Ten” in prophecy symbolizes a “whole,” a “complete” set or number. Ten Jubilee cycles of 49 years would represent a divine probationary whole that is “complete.”

3. In Deuteronomy 16 (noted above) the shabuwa denotes the Feast of Weeks (hag shabuwot) – harvest, renewal, restoration – or “Feast of Seven-Periods.” That followed a 49–1 symbol, drawing symbolically once again on Jubilee years. This was celebrated on the “morrow after” the seventh sabbath after the day of firstfruits (Leviticus 23:15-16) once per year.

• From the firstfruits – 7 units of seven is 49

• On the 50th [the next day] began the Feast of Weeks (later called Pentecost).

4. In Daniel 11:2-20 it shows the kings that would arise as way marks during their probation, covering a span of 490 years.

Passover

Feast of Unleavened Bread

(next day after Passover)

Firstfruits

(second day

after Passover)

Feast of Weeks

(50 days later)

This “week-of-years” is unquestionably the distinct imagery referenced. Using a year/day principle is a weak Biblical application.

In this restoration setting shibiym shabuwa reveals 70 Sabbatical years in 10 Jubilee cycles, probation’s second chance through 70 sevens. As Christ was the firstfruits (I Corinthians 15:20, 23), His people are ready to receive divine restorative power in 70 sevens when they become firstfruits to His kingdom (Revelation 14:4) – at the “50th.”

• This countdown began at the firstfruits of the barley harvest (Leviticus 23:15-16).

• That was during the Feast of Unleavened Bread, a celebration of being without sin. [At the time of the Latter Rain (March–April)].

• At the end of the 50 days the wheat was coming in.

• At the Feast of Weeks (Pentecost) the firstfruits of the wheat were presented to God as loaves of wheat bread, representing the 144,000 – Revelation 14:4).

This probation of 490 years was a time to receive power from God and be restored! Though it was directed at Daniel’s people, the 2300-“day” prophecy already revealed that they would fail.

Meaning?

• The decree and prophecy is a message for us today!

• What about the timing of the 490 years? Didn’t that end in 34 A.D.?

• It counts out that way. But – there are special timing issues within this 490 years. That’s why it was given in segments. That’s why we need to carefully study Daniel 9.

Probation Boils Down to Obedience

God said in Leviticus 26:15 that failure to keep His statutes, judgments and commandments was “breaking my covenant.”

• Daniel knew that.

• That is why he prayed the way he did.

• That mareh vision is a story of how a disobedient group of people was to become an obedient remnant restored people.

• What statutes, laws and judgments are carried over? The covenant relates to what can be put into the heart.

Seventy weeks-of-years are determined (chathak). This Hebrew word is used only here in the whole Bible.

• In this context it is best seen as “marked out” or “decreed” for God’s people and the holy city.

• Some describe it as “cut out” of the 2300-year prophecy. We know it is part of that vision because it is the mareh vision.

Daniel’s people were waiting to be called out of Babylon. In the last days the great multitude will be waiting to be called out of Babylon.

• Gabriel makes it clear that “thy people” includes both eras.

• “Thy people” are all those “found written in the book” (12:1).

Holy City on Probation?

Did God give the city of Jerusalem 70 weeks-of-years to be on probation?

• City (ir) is literally a walled city.

• At that time Jerusalem had no walls. Nebuchadnezzar had destroyed them July 10, 586 B.C.

• What is happening?

“Jerusalem” is a metaphor for God’s corporate body of people.

• Again, we see this from many special references.

• In Revelation 11:1-2 the holy city is tread underfoot forty and two months, the same language as in Daniel 8:13 and Isaiah 63:18). It is God’s true church.

“Then I heard one saint speaking, and another saint said unto that certain [saint] which spake, How long [shall be] the vision [concerning] the daily [sacrifice], and the transgression of desolation, to give both the sanctuary and the host to be trodden under foot? Daniel 8:13.

“The people of thy holiness have possessed [it] but a little while: our adversaries have trodden down thy sanctuary.” Isaiah 63:18.

Who is the Lamb’s wife? New Jerusalem (Revelation 21:9-10).

Gabriel is saying, Your people – your holy nation – your church has 490 years to become holy. As these verses and Daniel make clear, it will come when it is persecuted and under heavy censure.